Walk Your Talk ~ Step 21: Mistakes are Opportunities

Do you stress out about messing up? Waste time worrying about making a mistake?

As kids we get scolded for all sorts of things; whether you’ve been punished for spilling your milk, getting a ‘D’ on a test or putting a baseball through the neighbors living room window, it’s pretty likely you got the message at some point in your life that it wasn’t Ok to make mistakes.

Depending upon how easy-going or uptight you were as a kid, you may have become locked up about your behavior, maybe even developed perfectionism in a vain attempt to get everything right on the first try.

Attempting to get it perfect on the first try is not only silly, it is usually impossible. Think about learning to ride a bike; would you have been able to join Tour De France on your first day? What about music? Would you have gotten a recording contract the first time you picked up a guitar?

Learning is a process. To learn something, we have to be willing to be a beginner. We have to let go of perfectionism and be willing to make a bunch of mistakes as we learn.

Think about this logically, if you already knew how to do everything, what would be the purpose for human life? The whole point of Earth School is to learn new things, grow and evolve.

Learning is experiential; we don’t learn just from hearing something – we have to actually do it in order to really get it. Which means that in order to learn something new, you have to be willing to make a few mistakes.

Think about a toddler just learning to walk. The child will try to get his balance then fall down. He may get back up and fall back down a dozen times before he takes a few steps without falling again. However many times he falls, he’ll stay curious and open to learning this new thing.

The whole time the toddler is learning, the parents might be cheering him on, “Come on baby! You can do it! That’s it!” You never hear about parents kicking their child because their baby didn’t walk perfectly on the first try.

So you may wobble a little or fall over a few times before you enter your first bike-a-thon. You may strum a few bad chords before you decide you’re ready to make your first music video. Have fun with learning new things. Be willing to get a little messy. Keep cheering yourself on, no matter what your learning looks like or how many times you fall down. Become a curious and enthusiastic learner, knowing there’s no way to blow it.

From here on out you do not need to worry about making mistakes. Souls in human bodies learn through a process of trial and error. Mistakes are actually how we learn. In fact, from your soul’s perspective, there is no such thing as a mistake – there are only opportunities for learning and growing.

Claim that mistakes are simply learning opportunities. Say, “It’s Ok for me to make mistakes; mistakes are how I learn.” Breathe it in.

Many Blessings of Joy and Vibrant Freedom

Action Step ~ Let go of perfectionism and claim that mistakes are how you learn. Declaration: “It is Ok for me to make mistakes. Mistakes are just learning opportunities.”